Nashville school shooter was a 28-year-old former student
Three children and three adults were killed following a mass shooting at Covenant School in Nashville's Green Hills neighborhood on Monday morning, officials said.
The shooter, who was fatally shot by police, was identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale from Nashville, authorities said. Authorities released body camera footage Tuesday of police officers responding to the shooting and taking down the assailant.
Officials said the shooter was armed with "at least" two assault-style rifles and a handgun. The shooter had legally purchased seven weapons from local gun stores, said Metropolitan Nashville Police Department chief John Drake on Tuesday. Three of the weapons were used to carry out the shooting at Covenant School, according to Drake.
Police said their preliminary investigation indicates that the shooter was at one time a student at the private Christian grade school, Drake said earlier. He did not know exactly when the shooter may have attended.
"What detectives have said so far is there's possibly some resentment for having to go to that school," the police chief said Tuesday on "CBS Mornings."
Drake said the shooting was a targeted attack and that police found "a manifesto."
"We have a manifesto, we have a booklet, that shows exactly what she had planned to do," Drake said. "We have maps that show the entry point into the school, the weapons that were going to be used, the clothing that she was gonna wear, and she had drawn it up, almost like a cartoon character. It was exactly what she had on during this incident."
He said police found detailed maps drawn of the school that included surveillance, as well as "a drawing" of how, potentially, the shooter "would enter and the assaults that would take place." Among the items found were "several different writings about other locations," in addition to the school, Drake said.
"There's quite a bit of writing to it," Drake told reporters Tuesday. "I have not read the whole manifesto. Our team and the FBI have been working on this."
Police have also clarified that, while they believe the school itself was a target in the attack, the individual victims were not.
"We feel that these students who were targeted were randomly targeted," Drake said.
"We have no evidence that individuals were specifically targeted," added Don Aaron, a spokesperson for the MNPD. "This school, this church building was a target of the shooter, but we have no information at present to indicate that the shooter was specifically targeting any one of the six individuals who were murdered."
The shooter entered Covenant School through a side door and traversed the building, moving from the first floor to the second floor and "firing multiple shots," Aaron said.
Responding officers saw the shooter firing on the second level, and at that point, they "engaged" her, Aaron said. The shooter was fatally shot by two of the five responding police officers at the scene, he said.
The shooter may have also had other targets, including a local mall, Drake said.
"We strongly believe there was going to be some other targets, including maybe family members, and one of the malls here in Nashville," Drake said. "And that just did not happen."
Drake said a search of the shooter's home turned up two additional weapons, "and I believe some more maps pertaining to maybe some thinking about some other incidents."
Drake said Tuesday that the shooter's parents were under the impression that the shooter had previously owned and sold only one weapon, and did not own any others. However, police learned that the shooter "had been hiding several weapons within the house," Drake added.
The shooter "was under doctor's care for an emotional disorder," according to the police chief. The shooter's possible motive remained under investigation as of Tuesday.
